Asterisk Gains New Lifecycle Management Solution

October 18, 2006

Packet Island recently introduced a new software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution designed to target the VoIP lifecycle management needs of VARs and SMBs deploying the open source-based Asterisk IP-PBX. The PacketSmart for Asterisk solution is based on Asterisk software agents and purpose-built micro-appliances that work with the highly scalable PacketSmart SaaS platform, hosted at a Tier-1 data center. The solution has three distinct functions, including network assessment for VoIP, VoIP troubleshooting, and ongoing VoIP SLA monitoring.

The Asterisk software agents perform continuous monitoring of all VoIP calls terminating at the PBX, while the micro-appliances are complementary to the software agents, and can be easily moved around the network to isolate and troubleshoot network issues affecting VoIP quality.

During the deployment planning phase, the micro-appliances can be used to simulate live VoIP traffic on an SMB's network, to identify and fix problems before the Asterisk VoIP deployment. After Asterisk deployment, the Packet Island software agent that is left installed on the Asterisk PBX continues to collect detailed quality metrics that can be used by the SME and VAR for SLA monitoring and to isolate and troubleshoot transient VoIP quality issues. For multi-site deployments with multiple Asterisk PBXs, the software agents can be employed to do periodic network assessments to ensure that the inter-Asterisk connectivity continues to support good VoIP quality.